HotToastyRag Barbra Streisand gave a tour-de-force performance in Funny Girl, the film that won her an Oscar for Best Actress of 1968. She played the stage actress Fanny Brice in this musical biopic, and while the film starts out showing her comedic talents, it takes a darker turn once she falls in love. It's always that way, isn't it? But at least, Jule Styne and Bob Merrill wrote her some beautiful songs to express the romantic drama, and Barbra displayed serious dramatic talents powerful enough to reduce every woman in the audience to tears.It was Babs's first film, and when you watch the intense, high energy performance that runs the gamut of human emotions, it's no wonder she tied with Katharine Hepburn at the 1969 ceremony. The song "My Man", although not written for the show, was one of the real Fanny Brice's signature tunes. Once you've seen and heard Babs sing it, you'll never be the same. I wouldn't really recommend anyone watching this movie who hasn't yet had a heartbreak, because she won't really understand what's going on. Girls over the age of 15 will cry, cringe, and hope throughout Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif's romance. It's mesmerizing, realistic, painful, and beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, Irene Sharaff's costumes went without recognition during the American awards season, but at least the BAFTA Awards nominated her talent. From Barbra's famous leopard coat to her striking orange ensemble, all authentic-looking costumes add to the drama and flair of the movie, helping to show Fanny's journey through show business and her personal growth.I love Funny Girl; it's one of my go-to movies when I'm in need of a good cry. I love how Barbra switches effortlessly from comedy to drama, and how she always put her whole heart into her performances. My mom used to make me squeal with laughter when I was a kid, performing "I'm the Greatest Star" a la Babs, and when I saw the real scene as a teenager, it was that much funnier. Everyone has their own favorite song from Funny Girl, and while most pick "People" or the show-stopping "Don't Rain on my Parade"-Harry Stradling's cinematography in that scene is still incredibly exciting even 50 years later-mine has to be "I'm the Greatest Star". I'm sentimental.

JohnHowardReid A disappointingly watered-down version of the original stage play. Apparently producer Ray Stark was actually married to the daughter of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein and he yielded to his wife's pressures to whitewash her dad on the screen. This has resulted in a very bland adaptation indeed, with the now colorless story occupying an inordinate amount of running time. Lackluster acting by Omar Sharif further compounds the tedium. Even the ebullient Miss Streisand is swamped by the often pointless verbosity of the dialogue. Her efforts to spark this threadbare material into some semblance of dramatic life are usually undermined by lack of co-operation. No vigor or warmth from her mechanical co- star, no effervescence from Wyler's lumbering, heavy-handed direction. Herbert Ross has staged the musical numbers in an equally elephantine fashion. Even his helicopter shots fail to soar. Fortunately, no amount of sabotage can strangle Miss Streisand's vocal talents. Her songs are still the high points of this plodding, pedestrian, unwieldy and over-produced musical.OTHER VIEWS: This garishly expensive but doggedly flat-footed remake of "Rose of Washington Square" dares to downgrade Alice Faye's wistfully beautiful, soul-searching Rose into a self-centered, unashamedly ambitious Brice. Despite her sterling efforts to shape the picture to her personality, Miss Streisand cannot defeat either the dead hands of her co-players or the clinging script. Generally unsympathetic direction allied with occasionally self-glorifying camera-work doesn't help. The best thing about the film is the songs — and the best of these are the oldies. It's fascinating to compare Streisand's throbbing version of Brice's signature tune, "My Man", to Alice Faye's more straightforward yet just as emotionally highly- charged rendering. Interesting too that James F. Hanley's "Second Hand Rose" has been selected for Funny Girl to match the same lyricist's "Rose of Washington Square". Both songs are strikingly similar.

Steffi_P As the screen musical has evolved, so too has the screen musical star. Back in the 30s and 40s we got singers and dancers whose ability to act was only coincidental, if they could act at all. In the 50s, as musicals became more dramatic the roles would mostly be filled by established lead players who would then be dubbed by a professional singer. This practice came to be frowned upon (probably the main reason Audrey Hepburn was not acclaimed for her excellent performance in My Fair Lady), and by the mid-1960s a new generation of musical stars had arrived, a rare breed whose acting talents matched their ability to sing. Julie Andrews became an overnight success with Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, and was followed in the late-60s by Liza Minnelli and of course Barbra Streisand who makes her screen debut here with Funny Girl.The advantage you have with someone like Streisand is that they can carry a dramatic performance over into the musical numbers. When Streisand sings, she is very much still acting. There is of course the force she puts into her movements and the emotion in her face, but she also exhibits breathtaking control over the dynamics of the music, her voice swelling mid-line to bring out the power in a song. It's one of the finest musical performances ever, up there with Judy Garland in A Star is Born and Liza Minnelli in Cabaret. Streisand is ably supported by Omar Shariff, here establishing himself as a kind of Arabic Sean Connery. Like Connery he has played people of a lot of different nationalities, and rarely with any authenticity, but this doesn't matter too much because he was such an everyman of desirable masculinity. He is also a somewhat better actor than Connery, and this is one of his better roles.Funny Girl was the penultimate movie directed by classic-era veteran William Wyler. Although he had taken on some ostentatious projects in the preceding fifteen years, he was still known as a director who focused on bringing out the best in his cast. This was the only musical he ever made. He does not direct the songs with a rhythmic touch as most directors would, but instead seems to view them as an extension of the ordinary narrative. He simply selects the angle and the distance that shows off the necessary facet of the musical performance, long shots for dancing, mid shots for the standing still stuff, and close-ups for those emotive money shots. It doesn't make this the most lyrical or aesthetic of musical pictures, especially when compared to the work of Vincente Minnelli or Robert Wise, but it does show off Ms Streisand at her best.The songs themselves are by Jules Styne, an old-time composer who had been doing stuff for Broadway since the 1920s. As such he's able to give the music an authentic early-twentieth century feel, especially on songs "I'm the Greatest Star", "You Are Woman, I Am Man" and "Sadie Sadie" which remind me a little of the work of Jerome Kern. The score is also augmented by such genuine period numbers as "I'd Rather Be Blue over You" and "My Man", which are actually better than Styne's own work, but still segue nicely into his score. The main arc of the storyline is Fanny Brice's heady but tumultuous relationship with first husband Nicky Arnstein, to which her showbiz career is only the backdrop. This focus gives an accessibility that many similar musicals (such as Star! with Julie Andrews) lack. And at the heart of it all is the performance of Streisand, which does the songs justice and gives the picture its stature as a musical romantic drama.

Movie_Muse_Reviews The '60s was the decade of the movie musical with "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady," and "Oliver!" all taking home Best PIcture. It's fair to say "Funny Girl" might've been on that list had it not came out the same year as "Oliver!" But the Academy had it right in giving this musical romantic comedy's one Oscar to its best attribute and greatest asset: Barbara Streisand.Only in her mid-20s and in her big-screen debut, Streisand plays like a veteran. She brings the film to its highest points, makes it bearable through its lowest, is responsible for all of the laughs as well as all the touching moments and she does it while defying the "standards" of beauty in Hollywood.Streisand's nose might be the most famous body part in movie history, yet she holds her head high confidently and gives the mirror a smile as she utters the film's first line "hello, gorgeous." She's an average Jewish girl from Brooklyn but here she is -- and that's what makes her perfect as Fanny Brice, the famous Zigfield Follies comedienne."Funny Girl" is a typical musical love story only its main character is a famous (and wealthy) musical performer and there's a bit more attention on the dramatic aspect of her relationship with Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif). As she sings about people who need people being the luckiest in the world, the story becomes less about her rise to fame and more about finding the right man and making him part of her life. Keeping the focus on Fanny is legendary director William Wyler in one of his last pictures. Wyler keeps us focused on the talented Streisand and together they keep our attention on Fanny's story -- what's going on in her head. The love story can get awfully bland at times, but its Fanny that keeps our interests and brings the film its few poignant moments.Streisand has many faces in this film and that's why she's so good. She's not necessarily deeply moving or able to give a truly affecting performance, but she's believable and she's honest with the part while also giving it some comedic zing with the over-the-top Jewish New Yorker routine. There might not be any notable epiphanies in her performance, but she clearly guides us through Fanny's emotions and realization of her own flaws.~Steven CVisit my site at http://moviemusereviews.com